"O. K." sign

[Peter A. McGraw]

Oh, no!!!

A few years ago I used the "o.k." sign in a conversation with my very
gracious hosts on a visit to China.  They didn't seem to get it, so I
provided a translation.  Only later did it occur to me to wonder if in fact
I had inadvertently given them the finger.  Your message removes the veil
of hopeful ignorance I've carefully maintained ever since.

Peter Mc.

--On Thu, Nov 2, 2000 11:07 AM -0500 GSCole <gscole at ARK.SHIP.EDU> wrote:

> I'm presuming that whomever is offended at the 3-ring/OK sign is
> offended because that gesture is the equivalent, in their culture, of
> the raised middle finger in much of 'U.S. culture'.
>
> Several years ago, one of my students from an Asian country asked why a
> beer commercial ended with the guy, in the ad, making the (OK) sign
> after taking a sip of beer.  He had thought that U.S. TV was
> conservative, and was surprised to see such a gesture in one of our TV
> commercials.
>
> George S. Cole   gscole at ark.ship.edu
> Shippensburg University



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu